Legal stuff. I don't own Tenchi and anything else in this story that was created by the good people at Pioneer. Pioneer does. Some stuff I created. You'll know it when you see it. -Gary D Part 1: The Bounty Hunter and the Ghost He sat at the bar and thought. He was being watched, this he knew. He also knew who was watching him. Normally he didn't mind when beautiful women stalked him for week and then studied his every move as he tried to relax with a good, strong drink, but when the pretty woman was the best bounty hunter in the galaxy, it was just trouble. He knew she wasn't interested in him romantically, considering his luck with women lately, so that left one option, she wanted to kill him. That wasn't good. "Probably still pissed about Ryoko getting away." He thought. "Needs someone to take her anger out on." He thought some more. "I guess a poor little smuggler who has no money left and no jobs is probably a good person to kill when you just lost the biggest bounty in the universe." He sighed. There had to be some way out of this. If there wasn't, which was probably the case, he was still going to try to get out of this mess. He couldn't bribe her (he had just spent the last of his money on the drink) and he definitely couldn't beat her (she had a reputation of almost never losing) so he had to outsmart her. "This could be tough, but I've never have given up. Uh, well there was that time in the outer eaches.nah, I was too young to appreciate life back then. Well it's now or never." He thought to himself. He finished the drink, smiled at the bartender "Hey, she might like me a little." he quickly brushed the thought from his mind. Now was not the time to think about cute bartenders, his life was at stake. Maybe if he survived. Now standing, he walked to the door (making sure to wink at the bounty hunter "always go out in style", his late partner had once said. He had died soon after, but he took out three galaxy police cruisers with him. That was pretty stylish.) And into the hanger. He was about fifty feet away from his ship, The Hunting Drake, and thinking that maybe he was just paranoid, and she wasn't after him, when she spoke. "Turn around, Zeshin, and face your doom." Nagi said in a voice that sounded to him a little to happy. He turned around slowly, careful to make sudden movements. Nagi was standing there, sword in hand, and looking pissed. "So.am I wanted dead? It looks that way to me-" Zeshin was interrupted by Nagi's sudden outburst. "I don't want to here any more wisecracks out of you, all I want you to do is die!" Nagi yelled. Zeshin sighed, and suddenly pulled a device out of his jacket, closed his eyes, and pressed the button. A blinding flash was emitted from it, and then it blew up. It wasn't a small explosion, just big enough to knock the temporarily blinded Nagi from her feet. Zeshin was at the hatch to his ship in a few seconds (you run pretty quick when your life is at stake). As soon as he was in, he was pressing buttons and throwing switches. By the time Nagi got up The Hunting Drake was almost out of the hanger. Muttering curses, she told Ken-oki, her cabbit/spaceship, to transform and follow Zeshin. Meanwhile, Zeshin was enjoying his little victory. He knew that Ken-oki was faster and better armed than The Hunting Drake, but not everyone surprised Nagi. "Guess she's getting old!" he howled with glee. Soon his glee turned to misery when dozens of shots bounced of his backside. "Damn, she's faster than I thought" Zeshin said out loud. He ran to the small cargo bay and shoved all the important stuff out (this wasn't much) and went back to the cockpit just in time to see his main engine blow. Acting pretty calm for someone who was sure he was about to die, he slowed down until Ken-oki was just behind him. Hoping Nagi was too mad to react quick enough, he pushed the cargo jettison button. Nagi tried to manuver away from the assorterd junk flying out of The Hunting Drake's backend, but one of Ken-oki's arm-like things bashed into a black-market dishwasher (that happened to explode when it was run) causing the dishwasher to blow up. This sent Ken-oki into a wild spin, and by the time Nagi managed to stop spinning, Zeshin had every gun he could pointed at Ken-oki. It was by sheer luck that one of Zeshin's wild shots found its way to Ken-oki's main drive, shutting down any possibility of Nagi going anywhere. A screen flashed in on Ken-oki. "Hey Nagi! Sorry bout' your engines. Heh, heh. What's wrong, cabbit got your tongue? You seem depressed, need me to come over and comfort you?" Zeshin laughed, his aqua eyes sparkling with joy. "I take that as a no. Oh, well. See you round, or hopefully not. Bye now!" He said and closed communication. Zeshin scratched his head, thinking about what to do next. "If I had planned on living, I wold have thought about where to go after I got away!" he said to himself. "Hey! I need a full damage report and advice on where to go next." "MAIN ENGINE-DESTROYED. PRIMARY LANDING THRUSTS- DAMAGED. SECONDARY LANDING THRUSTS-DESTROYED. THERE IS A SMALL AIR LEAK IN THE CARGO AREA. ADVICE-GO HIDE SOMEHWHERE AND LET NAGI BLOW OFF SOME STEAM" the computer answered. "Hide somewhere, hunh." Zeshin wondered "How about that place where I heard Ryoko is hiding. E-something, uhh, Earf, no, Eorth, no, ummm, Earth? Yea! That's it, Earth! Some backwater dump near Saturn! Do you happen to know the quickest to get there?" "AFFIRMATIVE. IF WE BYPASS THE TARLUNAMIUNA NEBULA-" "OK, just get us there!" Zeshin said, shaking his head. "AFFIRMATIVE" "Oh, and send something to patch up that air leak" "ALREADY DONE" "Thanks, I don't feel like dying before we reach this Earth." Meanwhile, on some backwater dump near Saturn, life at the Masaki house has returned to normal after the events with Kagato and then Kain. Azaka and Kamadake (the guardians) were at the front gate, Washu was in her lab working on some strange experiment. Sasami was cooking lunch, and Yosho was at the shrine doing some religious activity. Mihoshi and Kiyone were on patrol, Nobuyuki was at work, and Tenchi was caught between Ryoko and Ayeka. Yep, things were back to normal. After a while Ryoko and Ayeka got bored with fighting and went off to do something else, giving Tenchi a much-needed rest. He plopped down heavily on the couch and sighed. "Hey Tenchi, could you find Ryoko and Ayeka and tell them lunch is ready?" Sasami asked in a cheerful voice. "Sure, as soon as I rest a little." Tenchi replied, not looking forward to the task he had been given. After a couple of minutes of restful silence, he got up and went outside to find Ryoko, who was probably sulking around somewhere. He was about to head to the shrine to ask Yosho if had seen either one of them, when he saw a fiery streak in the sky. "Probably just Mihoshi trying to land again." He chuckled, thinking about all the times she had crashed. When the fireball got bigger he saw that it was not Yagami, but actually some unfamiliar spaceship that looked sort of like a fish turned sideways with a large number of guns on it. With a shout he started running toward the shrine, which was where it looked like this strange ship was about to land. By the time he got there the fireball was very big and Ryoko and Yosho were running away from the shrine very fast. They reached where Tenchi had stopped and turned around just in time to see the ship crash into the shrine, then skid to a stop fifty feet later. When the three reached what looked like the ship's hatch, it shuddered and stared to open, then closed again. A string of muffled curses came from behind the door, then an explosion, and the door came flying off. Out came a rather angry and dirty Zeshin, his raspberry-colored hair singed at the ends and his gray pilot's suit burnt in places. "Uhhh, hi." He managed to croak before falling face first on the ground. "Uggghhh." Kagato sat up. "What? I'm, I'm alive?" He looked down at his body. It seemed real enough. It touched it. It was rater real. "Heh, heh, HA!" Kagato started laughing. "I'M ALIVE!!!" he shouted. Then he noticed something. On his chest, embedded in the flesh, was a large, dark crystal. Its insides swirled in red and black, almost with a mind of it's own. Suddenly it all became clear. In the darkness of space, Kagato smiled. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "Wha-?" Bright lights. Funny Noises. "What the hell happened?" Zeshin asked, suddenly awake and very confused. "You were knocked out when you blew the hatch off your ship. You've been out for six days" A very short woman with long pink hair replied matter-of-factly. "Wh-where am I?" Zeshin inquired "The Masaki household. Actually, you're in my lab, which is connected by a dimensional gateway to the Masaki residence." The little redhead stated. Zeshin looked confused "On Earth?" "I guess you could say that. Oh, I have not introduced myself yet, I am Washu, the greatest scientist in the universe!!" She announced. Two puppets appeared at her shoulders Washu A: You are the Greatest Washu!! Washu B: Yay Washu!! " Uh, Washu, as in the mad scientist Washu who recently got kicked out of the galactic science academy for developing a device to destroy the universe with?" Zeshin asked, sitting up. "Yep, that's me!" Zeshin leaped out of the bed "Um, could you please point out the door?" Washu pointed in a direction. "You seem well enough, just don't do anything too active." Washu said, shaking her finger at him. Zeshin headed that way until he found a door, gulped, wondering what horrible new surprises awaited him on the other side. He opened the door, and stepped through. He was suddenly in a peaceful, average looking house. Then an explosion sounded from upstairs, shaking the whole house. "Tenchi is mine!" "He is not you horrible monster, he is mine!" "You wish, princess!" There was another explosion, and Zeshin ducked behind a couch and peeked over. He saw, to his surprise, none other than the space pirate Ryoko fly down the stairs, pursuing Princess Ayeka of Jurai. "This is getting too damn weird." Zeshin said to himself "Wake up, come on Z-man, wake the hell up before I get killed, or worse." He said, slapping himself in the head a couple of times. "That won't help much." A woman's voice said. Zeshin looked up. "You're not doing it hard enough." Ryoko said, "Here, let me help." "Stay away, I'm dreaming, and I'm gonna wake up in a couple of seconds and I don't feel like dying before that happens." He stammered. Ryoko shrugged "Well, when you do, say hi to the real world for me." "You're awake, are you alright?" A male voice said from behind him. Zeshin spun about and drew his sword, a black scimitar with a red edge. "Stay back or I'll-hunh?" he ordered, then stopped when he realized he didn't know who he was looking at "Who the hell are you?" The guy in front of him was of average height, had tanned skin and black hair pulled back into a rat-tail. He held out his hand in a greeting "Tenchi Masaki." Zeshin clasped Tenchi's and shook it "Hi, I'm Zeshin and I'm about to wake up." He said Tenchi laughed "Your response is the most normal one I've ever seen when somebody arrives here." He said "Most of the time they just accept all of it without question. Even I wonder sometimes how all these people got here." "Uhhh, so, I'm not dreaming then?" Zeshin asked, confused again. "No, I don't think so, you look awake to me." Tenchi said, then jumped in surprise when somebody hugged him from behind. "Ummm, Tenchi tell that horrible Ayeka over there that you love me and want her to go back to Jurai." Ryoko purred in Tenchi's ear. "Ryoko, please." He replied, rolling his eyes. Zeshin just stood there and took it all in. "So all these people live here?" He asked Tenchi. "Yeah, kind of weird, hunh?" Tenchi said. "Well, yeah. But it all kinda makes sense when you think about it. So is this all?" Tenchi sighed and muttered something about being the only sane person in the Universe "No, there's Sasami, she's cooking dinner, and Mihoshi and Kiyone, they're on patrol. Oh! And My dad and grandfather too." "Hmm, where's the bathroom?" Zeshin inquired "And, uhhh, I kinda need a place to lie low for a while. I kinda pissed off a bounty hunter and need to hide. This place looks good, I mean there's girls all over th' place. Bye the way, which one's yours? Ryoko?" "The bathroom's over that way, you'll have to ask Grandpa about staying here, it's his house, and none of the girls are `mine', but Ryoko and Ayeka will each claim they are." Tenchi said. "Man, you're crazy, all these girls and you're still single? What's up with you." Zeshin said, already heading for the bathroom. "Oh, and since Ryoko's not yours, can I have her?" "Yea, right, pal! My heart belong to Tenchi and him only!" Ryoko replied for him. "This has not been my week. First, I almost get killed by Nagi, then my ship blows up, and now I'm surrounded by beautiful girls who all love the same person." Zeshin sighed. Bye the time he got out, dinner was already in full swing. He walked into the dining room. "Hey Zeshin!" Tenchi called out. Zeshin walked over to him. "I'll introduce you to everyone! Over there are the Galaxy police officers Mihoshi and Kiyone." Zeshin looked over at the two women. The woman who Tenchi had pointed out as Kiyone smiled and waved at him, he smiled back. Mihoshi was too busy eating to wave. "You've already met Ryoko, and that is Ayeka Juari." Zeshin looked at Ryoko, wolfing down her third helping, then at Ayeka, who was eating in the opposite manner of Ryoko, with proper etiquette. "That is Sasami" Sasami was a little girl with two long pigtails sprouting out of her blue hair. She giggled and bowed. "How do you do?" Sasami asked. Zeshin nodded and motioned Tenchi to continue. "This is my Father, and that is Grandpa." Zeshin thanked Tenchi and walked over to Yosho. "Hey, umm, uhh, can I stay here for a while? Just until my ship gets repaired, of course. And I'll fix your shrine that I kinda smashed. That OK?" He asked. Yosho smiled warmly "Sure, there's always room for one more!" He said "All right! I'm starved! Can I get some food over here, please?" After dinner Mihoshi and Kiyone left for their apartment and Zeshin collapsed on the couch (he had declined Tenchi's offer to use his room) and was asleep soon after. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ It had taken Kagato six days to find his old minions. Most he killed outright for abandoning him so quickly, but a couple were too useful. Only one was left-a certain smuggler who had done a run for Kagato every now and then. This one he had a special job for. To be continued... Notes Yeah-the first one had some dumb parts in it so I did some re-editing and came up with this. Maybe it's a little better, I dunno. Any comments or advice would be greatly appreciated at superfly2k@hotmail.com